Camus is a close friend, Baudelaire, conveyed to him his spleen… Rapper, poet, writer, Abd Al Malik is an ambassador of the literary heritage in French. Supporter of the total art, the singer of 44 years and marks his return with a project far more ambitious than a simple album: The Young Black man to the sword is an audio book, followed by a show that combines poetry, song and dance.
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the origin of this artistic creation, the exhibition at the musée d’orsay entitled Black model . The parisian museum has proposed to ‘ Abd al-Malik build the table The Young Black man to the sword of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, oil on canvas in 1850. The artist will present this show on Saturday, may 18 at 20: 30 for its second participation to the “Language” of Villeurbanne, france, a commune bordering on Lyon. Eleven days of readings, shows, concerts in honour of the French language, from 14 to 25 may.
Abd Al-Malik, in “Language” 2018. @Michel CAVALCA
LE FIGARO. – When your first entry, you had said excerpts from your book the Art of rebellion , in which you pay homage to Albert Camus. You inspire this writer?
‘ Abd Al-Malik. – Camus is a reference in his words to the world, the real, on the philosophy. He is a writer, artist, man of the theatre, journalist… To me, it is in a process of this that must be the artist in the Twenty-first century. That is to say, the ability to use multiple disciplines. I’m one of those people who think that the shape is the background. I try to think about how to link the photo, the poetry, the dance, put all of this in dialogue. But again the verb may be something that is not said, it is expressed in terms of energy. The purpose is the movement. I think in terms of total art.
This year, you present your latest creation, a show around the work The Young Black man to the sword of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, presented at the musée d’orsay. It is also a CD and a book where you will meet Baudelaire, Gérard Jouannest, Édouard Glissant, Homer…
I love to find connections, the classic figures that tell of the problems of today. By discovering the array of the Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, I wanted to tell the story of this young Black man to the sword, but in our time. The journey of Odysseus also reminds us that the issue of migration, the displacement of population has not started today. These are the books that have made me the man that I am, and I want to think of the young or the young ‘ Abd Al-Malik of today, and offer him a book that could bring the harmony that it brought me. The heart of my approach is to establish a link generational.
For fifteen days, “The Language” celebrate the poetry. Does it still have a role today?
We as artists are here to destabilize the beings, to bring the complexity. The world in which we live is a world that is more binary. The nuance is hardly heard. The poetry offers a form of purity of the words, without artifice. It all comes back to the essence of the word, of the verb. It is the language bare, without the frills.
A political role?
This is almost a pleonasm. The very act of being a poet is a political act in itself. The poem says that there is an elsewhere, that there is something that is in the realm of the spirit. It is very important in a world that has everything reduced to matter. The poetry says the unsayable.
* The Language, from 14 to 25 may, NPT, place Lazare-Goujon (Villeurbanne). Tel. 04 78 03 30 00
